Barcelona's dynasty is still in place after Real Madrid fail to read end-of-era script

There’s not much an English sports fan despises more than a dynasty. If you’re at the top of your game in America, a country less embarrassed by unfettered celebrations of triumph, you’re lauded.

Here we’re more comfortable with backing the underdog, schadenfreude and constant power shifts. That’s why I was happy to see Real Madrid take the lead after 22 seconds of Saturday’s clásico.

I’ve got nothing against Barcelona, and no desire to add to the mountains of text already dedicated to their exceptionally beautiful football when they’re in full flow. But I’m sure I’m not alone in finding their unyielding superiority a little bit tiresome.

In the lead-up to Saturday’s game there was much excited chatter about Real being ready to steal the mantle from their rivals. They led La Liga by three points with a game in hand, had won 15 on the bounce, and Barcelona, by their standards, were wobbling, having unexpectedly lost away at Getafe in November and been held at home by Seville earlier in the season.

It all started so well. Real pressed Barcelona with thrilling if unsustainable intensity and the visitors looked shocked at being pressured on the ball in their own half by packs of hungry Real players.

This approach paid off 20 seconds into the game when an unusually flustered Victor Valdes scythed a clearance straight to Angel Di Maria, whose pass to Karim Benzema fell kindly to Mesut Ozil, whose shot deflected to Benzema to score the opener.

Real were buzzing. Jose Mourinho’s instruction to deny Barcelona even a second of thinking time looked a tactical masterstoke, with Iniesta barely in the game for the first half, and the busy Alexis Sanchez resorting to several attention-seeking dives when dispossessed by the excellent Fábio Coentrão, unusually deployed at right back.

It’s tempting to read Mourinho as the more tactically-minded manager, with Guardiola more of a Wengeresque devotee to a philosophy, namely: pass, pass, and pass again.

But Guardiola’s subtle changes after a fruitless opening 20 minutes for his side – moving Dani Alves forward, shifting Carles Puyol to right back, and bringing Sergio Busquets back to partner Gerrard Pique in central defence – nullified Cristiano Ronaldo.

With Real’s most explosive player marginalised there was an inevitability to Lionel Messi's sparking into life and 407th demonstration that he operates at a different level to almost everyone else that’s ever kicked a football.

You simply can’t legislate for the Argentine, as was shown when he held off two challenges when bursting forward from just behind the halfway line and rode an attempted foul by Lassana Diarra to play a superb through-ball towards Alexis Sanchez, with which the Chilean equalised.

Real went to pieces after the second goal, a hugely fortuitous Xavi shot that deflected off Marcelo, but football will deal you unfortunate deflected goals from time to time.

Even for those of us whose sporting triumphs take place in parks and on Xbox know that you gain confidence from early success, which depletes hugely after your opponent gets on top, and evaporates entirely when things go against you, or you start making simple mistakes.

Cristiano Ronaldo was most guilty of the latter for Real, failing to play in Di Maria unmarked to his right (Ronaldo in selfish option shocker!) and missing an easy header to equalise just before Barcelona scored their third, a typically elegant counter-attacking goal.

Barcelona aren't unbeatable (ask Getafe), but you'll need luck, concentration and a near-perfect performance to pull it off. On this evidence Real are still some way off overhauling their rivals, but what’s more troubling for them are the psychological scars this defeat will inflict.

Mourinho’s squad have been consistently bested by Barca, like Arsenal in the Champions League, and with every new defeat Guardiola’s side will grow in stature in their collective mind. Real have a justifiable fear of these games based on previous experiences.

Barcelona have lost just one clásico from 12 since Guardiola took over, but this need not be the end of Real’s title hopes.

Should they win their game in hand they will re-establish a three point lead in La Liga, and Barcelona have looked complacent at times this season, somewhat vulnerable when Guardiola deploys his 3-4-3 formation, and could yet slip to more draws, and even defeats, than Mourinho’s ruthless outfit this season.

It won't please Mourinho, but the domineering feeling emerging from the Bernabeu on Saturday is that if Barcelona are to be usurped, it will have to be by be their own doing.